Many things had gone the Rams' way during their season-opening three game win streak. That many went wrong on Wednesday as they suffered their first PAC-10 softball defeat, a 2-1 loss to rival Perkiomen Valley.
Perkiomen Valley senior Kelsey Lewullis slid home with the winning run in the top of the seventh to drop the Rams to 3-1.
“We need to execute better,” said manager Tim Hughes. “It’s our job as coaches to have them better prepared when it comes to a tight game like this, where every small detail is magnified,”
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The Vikings jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning as Brittany Shoemaker, who walked and was moved into scoring position on a Sara Sermarini sacrifice bunt, scored when Jess White ripped a double into the gap.
The Rams tied the game in the home half of the third as pitcher Kristen Robinson blasted a two-out triple that hit the wall on the fly, then scored when a ball scooted by Perk Valley catcher Andre Conte.
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“Kristin has been hitting the ball very well,” said Hughes. “We need to take advantage of our scoring chances, though. We didn’t do a good job today of situational hitting and fundamentals that on any level are the way you win games.”
The Vikings (1-1 league, 3-1 overall) kept the game knotted heading into the seventh, on an outstanding effort by junior Erin Hamm.
After Spring-Ford got its leadoff batter on for the second inning in a row, Kristin Robinson ripped a ball past Perk Valley shortstop Shoemaker to give the Rams runners at the corners with one out.
Rams senior Stephanie Diegel, who has been hitting the cover of the ball to start the season, struck out leaving the opportunity to take the lead up to Becca James.
James drilled a 1-2 pitch off the glove of Jess White at first base. Hamm swooped in to back up the play and managed to flip the ball to White a fraction of a second before James touched the bag and Robinson tied the game.
“They made a great play there,” added Hughes. “We had a chance to take the lead there but again it didn’t go our way. We need to be certain that we hustle on every play, run out every hit. We have a lot of talented kids but they are young. We have to make sure we have them ready to play every game.”
After Hamm fouled out to start the top of the seventh, Lewullis drove a ball into the gap, and scampered into second with a stand up double.
Surprisingly, Vikings coach McLauglin opted against bunting her over to third, but after Zeigler struck out, Lewullis moved to third on a ball hit back up the middle, setting the stage for junior Harley Pascavage.
Pascavage battled through a nine pitch at-bat. The fifth pitch of the sequence got away from Diegel, allowing Lewullis to score without a play at the plate and giving Perk Valley a 2-1 lead.
“I felt like I was going to throw up right on the plate,” said Pascavage. “I was hoping to be able to hit her home, but I just worked as hard as I could fouling off pitches until I got a good one to hit. When that pitch got by and we scored it really took the pressure off. I am so happy that we won today. We really played as a team and it will really help our spirit and morale. ”
With two outs in the home seventh, Robinson got on base for the third time in the game for the Rams, but Steph Diegel's fly to centerfield was hauled in by Sara Sermarini to end the rally.
“We’ll be OK,” said Hughes. “I don’t know if there really is such a thing as good loss, but if there is, this was one of them. They are a very good team. We can take what we learned today and hopefully use it to realize that we need to play our best every game.”
Perk Valley 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 -2
Spring-Ford 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 -1
Pitching IP H R ER BB SO
Marcavage (WP) 7 4 1 0 4 8
Robinson (LP) 7 3 2 1 3 3
